BTW, you're right about McCain being a little bit shoddy as a pilot, but it appears he pulled his head out of his butt as things went along. As a guy who was a substandard airman at first but later ended up crewing my squadron's flagship jet, I can relate.
Not in the A-4...After a crash at Lemoore NAS I ended up in intelligence work and flying in Army planes in Vietnam as an observer (photography etc). I was lucky as I got shot at but never shot. The two Army pilots I flew with bought the farm after I left and they both had wives and children. Very sad.